For JD McPherson, the road from middle school teacher to roots-rock star was an uncertain one. The Tulsa-bred McPherson had been teaching art and technology to fourth- through eighth-graders for several years when his life changed in 2011.

“The politically correct term that the school’s headmaster used when they let me go was that they had 'chosen not to renew my contract,'" chuckles McPherson. “I was a really good teacher, but I was a terrible employee.”

Soon after his firing, McPherson was on the road.

“I wasn’t planning on a music career. I mean, I’d been making music since I was 16, I’d always had a band," he says. "It just happened that I had a record coming out and suddenly found this opportunity to go play a few festivals. Figured I’d do that as I started looking for another job.”

As it transpired, there wouldn’t be another job — not teaching, anyway. McPherson’s 2010 debut (rereleased in 2012), “Signs & Signifiers,” and its 2015 follow-up, “Let the Good Times Roll,” would become acclaimed efforts, with critics hailing his sharp '50s-styled rock and R&B songcraft.

On Thursday, McPherson will be in Memphis headlining the Levitt Shell at Overton Park, part of the venue’s free summer concert series.

Even now, in the throes of a successful rock 'n' roll career, McPherson looks back on his days in the classroom fondly.

“The teaching was so closely related to what I’m doing now. I was trying to force my music obsession onto my classes, basically,” he says.

“If the fourth-graders were learning to type, I had them typing about The Clash or the Collins Kids. If I was teaching sixth-graders how to make a PowerPoint, they were looking at the PowerPoint I made about Charlie Christian. To teach them how to use Google, I ask them to search and tell me the names all four original Ramones,’” he says, laughing. “I was constantly trying to find a way to fit music into the world I lived in. I finally got it to work out.”

Last year, McPherson released his third LP, “Undivided Heart & Soul.” Though it was cut at a classic studio — Nashville’s famed RCA Studio B — the disc marks a musical evolution of sorts.

“A lot of people assume I have to record in some old-fashioned super analog studio. But I really just need a studio to sound great and not feel like a dentist’s office — which is what all modern studios feel like in Nashville. They tend to feel like a doctor’s waiting room, with carpeted walls and Men’s Health magazines arranged lovingly across a particle board coffee table — and there’s something clinical and uninspiring about that."

JD McPherson at Historic RCA Studio B.(Photo11: Kaley Cheyenne Fluke)

The historic RCA proved the perfect setup. Working there in the wee hours of the night — during the days the studio is a tourist destination, much like Memphis’ Sun — McPherson found inspiration seeping from its walls.

“The weight of history there definitely had an effect on what we recorded,” he says. “I know that every night we were tearing down the gear we would listen to the Everly Brothers records that were cut there, or just marvel that we were in the same room that Roy Orbison’s ‘Crying’ was recorded.”

When Orbison or the Everlys were working in RCA in the '50s and '60s, they were making what was then considered adventurous music. Rather than mine some safer musical aesthetic, McPherson found himself and his songs moving in totally new directions.

“I knew it was going to be a different kind of record, but there was something about being in that room that made it more so — made it get louder and fuzzier. Dunno if it’s the big tracking room or just a rebellious feeling being there — because we were kinda sneaking in there in the middle of the night to work, it felt like we were getting away with something. That may have had something to do with it too. But it kicked the music into that higher gear that wouldn’t have happened if we’d gone elsewhere.”

At first, the things he was writing for the album — decidedly post-punk sounding departures like “On the Lips" — felt a bit too outré for McPherson. “I wouldn’t let myself believe that these songs were meant for me to record. I kept thinking, ‘Well, who is gonna record these songs?’ But eventually it dawned on me that I was writing these songs 'cause I wanted to be playing them.”

McPherson notes that while the album marks a sonic change for him, “when you get right down to it, it’s still pretty much a '60s garage record. It flipped a lot of people out that there wasn’t a bunch of saxophones on the record like before, but it’s still kind of a rock 'n' roll enthusiast's record.”

The experience of working and living in Nashville — where he moved with his family a few years back — seems to have opened the creative floodgates for McPherson. Though he’s mum on the details (“People will know more about it soon”) he’s says he’s currently at work on multiple new projects.

“I don’t know what’s going on 'cause I’ve never ever been a prolific writer. When I moved to Nashville I tried to do as much co-writing as possible — writing with other writers, and learning from them. When I was in art school we used to say, 'You learn to draw by drawing.' Maybe it’s being around people who are constantly hustling and writing, but I just have this explosion of ideas now. I almost can’t keep up with it.

“We’re recording something right now, and I’m already writing for another thing I want to record. Maybe it’s just something in the air here in Middle Tennessee, but it sure feels good. I’ve finally managed to make music my entire life,” he says. “And I’m very grateful for that.”

If you go

JD McPherson

When and where: 7:30 p.m. Thursday at the Levitt Shell at Overton Park